Update V: Adamant Warriors
c. 302-397 AU
“The pendulum swings between Order and Kaios, never stopping on one.”
-Ancient Harungen proverb
With a final, gasping breath, King Taranir of Cessal gave up his hold on life. His soul passed beyond the pale, and with it, the hopes of a kingdom. Thousands of years later historians would pore over ancient documents, examine wind-swept ruins, and set the death of the old king as the first in a long chain of events that marked the end of an era. Unlike the theories of most ancient historians, they were absolutely right.
Taranir had been holding the fragile nation of Cessal together for most of his life. But he was helpless to stop the civil war brewing in the tiny kingdom. The seeds of collapse were planted when two twins were born to the King. Separated at birth, they lived very different lives. The elder, Prince Kelphar, grew up in the lush countryside, seeing the peasants first hand from his mother’s ancestral village. The younger, Prince Letan, was raised in the capital, memorizing the laws of the kingdom, and observing the workings of its court.
The two brothers had barely known each other. While they looked identical, their beliefs were absolute opposites. The Councils of Tailan, defenders of individual freedom, had influenced Kelphar, while Letan was obsessed with the Legaltheistic philosophy spread from Habyte, which placed Law above all. Both declared their intent to rule Cessal, and not even their father could stop them.
Tailan and Habyte were thrown into war. As the plucky republic and the mighty giant prepared their armies to fight over Cessal, emissaries from Tailan, Habyte, Kelphar and Letan were flying to Harungen, all calling for aid.
With this, the Autarch saw an opportunity to strike a blow against Habyte, who he envied for their wealth and monumental cities. Now was his opportunity to make Harungen the greatest power in the known world! Declaring a vow of support for Kelphar, Harungen and Tailan declared war on Habyte. And the first truly great war had begun.
---
Hundreds of miles away, the Luginé prepared for battle against their ancient foes, the merciless desert raiders of the Jiru. Both sides would give no quarter. As they slowly rebuilt their strength, augmented their armies, and called on their allies, the tribes of the Jiru, Luginé, and their Haje allies somehow knew, this battle would be the greatest of all.
The three armies met in the Pass of Nelahi. A cool mountain spring burbled from under the rocks, swiftly turning into a stream that plunged down the mountainside. A light coating of snow had fallen the last night, and it coated the pass.
The armies had arrived by dawn, massing on opposite ends of the pass. There were thousands of Jiru, waving the bright banners of their tribes. There was bloodlust in their eyes as they charged. The Haje charged to meet them, eager to prove their bravery in attacking their former tribesmen. Behind them, the Lugine let loose with their white-clad bowmen, and the shafts whistled through the air, landing in a cloud of death among the Jiru.
But the Men of the Desert did not falter. They continued to push, and a small but fierce knot of Jiru axemen smashed through the center of the Haje column. Lugine spearmen rushed to close the gap, but it was too late. The column was already breaking…
---
The Draklor Empire was on the rise. Since the taming of these strange beasts roaming the plains, they had gained a new weapon that none of the disorganized plains tribes held. The majority of the Draklor were still footsoldiers, but a growing number of them were learning to ride the beasts, and had designed a way to control them with leather straps. Aided by this new cavalry, they expanded across the plains, mercilessly expelling the scattered tribes that fled in terror to the east.
To the south, as well, they had made contact with a rich kingdom, called Alystr. Though diplomatic relations were polite, it was clear that both nations wanted the lands and riches of the other.
But to the north, rumors of a bleak terror that struck from the sea gradually made their way to Dralos. It did not surprise the Teacher that there was an endless plain of water like the endless plain of grass that was his home. But it was decided that these foreigners would not step foot on Draklor land. They would crush them like the Elders.
And so, a mighty army marched north, with the new cavalry riding ahead as scouts. The poor city-state of Etaea surrendered without a fight, and the Horde continued its northward march. Balos was more than happy to agree to become a vassal of the Draklor, because the Sea Peoples had arrived.
The Teacher had hoped to confront them in Isus, but Isus had already fallen. The peninsula was home to several merchant houses that packed up their belongings and fled as the enemy fleet approached. They were given sanctuary across the sea, and Isus fell, resisting for only three days before the garrison of the capital surrendered. The black-sailed ships clogged the harbor, and disgorged thousands of troops at the port. They marched south, to destroy the insignificant country of “Da-kor” that they heard resisted them.
It would be an epic battle. As the sun rose before the city of Balos, thirty thousand Draklor confronted a Sea People army of twenty thousand. The Beaknoses were surprised to see horses among their enemies, calling out “Haskari!” in their language. Clearly they had dealt with them before, but did not expect to see them here. The Teacher saw that these were formidable enemies. It would be a difficult battle.
---
The people of Exilia were doing well. Trade with their neighbors had made the eastern cities into flourishing metropolises. Even though they lived on the edge of the desert, they managed to make a fairly successful existence.
But the Veritor wanted more. He wanted to move his people east, into the unknown lands. There was a vast outpouring of protest, since most of the people in the east, particularly Adhuckor, were comfortable farming and trading with Peron and Alezar. Still, he was the Veritor, and his word was law. So eventually, a large expedition party was formed, with several thousand soldiers, some eager colonists (that were previously peasants,) and a huge train of supplies and animals.
As the night fell, the Veritor escorted his expedition out of the city, on the ceremonial first mile of their journey. There was a celebratory atmosphere, and the king’s court let out a cheer for the explorers as they marched into the distance.
But then a very different sound cut the air. Horns were blowing from the south. They had a harsh, wailing sound, and even the Veritor felt a chill run up his spine. The Keji had come. Screaming battle cries and waving spears, they descended on the city of Exilia before the horrified eyes of the Veritor. The garrison, taken completely by surprise, was slaughtered. And the capital city of the Exiled burned into the night.
He had no choice. The Veritor and his men could stay and be slaughtered, or head into the east. Without a word between them, they turned and followed the expedition, heading into the desert.
---
The Yuzoi were running. The Sea King and his generals had changed their mind, and a large party of soldiers was chasing the remnants of the Yuzarch’s people, now mixed with the foreign Syr, into the wilds of the south. Months of horror passed, with the weak, the old, and the young eventually abandoned to the harsh justice of the Beaknoses. They would be enslaved, at best. But still the Yuzoi fled, hiding in the shadows of vast, primal mountains that had never felt the touch of human feet. Creeping from valleys to forests, they eventually managed to escape the Sea Peoples relentless search, but only after several of their soldiers laid a suicidal ambush to stall for time.
They eventually stumbled out of the forests, into a great bay with a scattering of coastal cities. The climate was warm and wet, like their homeland. Perhaps they could find refuge here.
But they were not the only refugees. Isus had fallen, and the ships of their wealthy merchant rulers had arrived, disgorging thousands of Isus citizens. The Balosian governors of the cities, after much debate, decided to accept the refugees from Isus, and turn away the Yuzoi, who were beginning to panic.
After a fierce, deeply divided debate, it was decided to take the young, seven year old Yuzarch back into the wilderness, and so the Yuzoi returned to the mountains. It was a harsh winter, and despite the help of the Syr who were adequate trappers, the cold and hardship soon forced them into near-starvation. But they moved further into the mountains, passing mighty glaciers and dark crevasses that vanished into the belly of the earth.
Soon they were pushed on only by desperation, and a gnawing hunger that was never satisfied.
---
Harungen’s armies were well prepared, and they immediately followed the plans issued to them. The Autarch’s engineers and scholars had designed siege engines that threw huge rocks, which burst into flame when doused with oil. But this slowed down the advancing Harungeni armies as they hooked around Cessal and invaded Habyte.
Leaving Cessal to their Prince Kelphar, Harungen’s armies swept up the left bank of the Dimini, while Tailan’s small but well-organized force advanced up the right bank, and sent a small relief force to Cessal. The Habyteans were slow to mobilize, and the Autarch took advantage of their delay. Soon Harungeni forces were besieging the southern city of Alarah, pounding its walls with their catapults. But by then, the Lawbringers were ready.
Two armies of forty thousand soldiers marched down each bank of the Dimini. In addition, Habyte sailed their entire fleet of galleys up the river, cutting off communication between Harungen and Tailan, and preventing the Autarchs from completing their attack plan. Then, the war chariots of Habyte thundered down towards Alarah. It would be a titanic battle, with each side fielding over a thousand chariots.
Habyte’s forces advanced towards the battlefield, taking light casualties from Harungeni skirmishers. Each group of chariots swept around the flanks, seeking to overwhelm the other. The Harungeni catapults threw flaming boulders down on the mass of Habytean soldiers, causing panic, but then Habyte released their secret weapons: Three hundred heavy, four-horse chariots with both a bowman and a spearman. Outnumbered and outfought, Harungen’s charioteers were slaughtered. The wings collapsed, as the bulk of Harungen’s spearmen came under direct arrow fire.
The catapults were abandoned, and only the presence of the Autarch himself kept the retreat from becoming a rout. Alarah was liberated, and a Habyte army soon linked up with Prince Letan in Cessal.
On the west bank, Tailan had also been forced to retreat, abandoning their siege of Ethotep. Before long, the homelands of the Republic were directly under threat.
Harungen’s ambitious invasion plan had failed. The Autarch rapidly reformed his armies and set up defensive positions around Cessal’s capital, which had already been gutted by the civil war. But the Lawbringers, and their massive army of chariots and bowmen, were bearing down on them. If this city fell, Harungen’s heartlands would be completely open to attack.
But Habyte’s armies abruptly retreated. In fact, they vanished from Cessal entirely.
The Sea Peoples had finally struck into the heart of the cradle.
---
The Haje had broken, and the Luginé were wavering. The Jiru pressed forward, sensing that their victory was close.
But the Singidu had come. Thousands strong, they reinforced the back of the line, forcing the Haje back towards the battlefield. Seeing that their allies had come, the Luginé pushed forward. The Jiru were fierce and numerous, but they had little discipline, and no effective leadership. Once one clan had deserted, the Jiru began to rout. Bottled up in the confines of the pass, Singidu and Luginé soldiers rushed forward, slaughtering the enemy rearguard.
The Battle of the Four Armies would increase Luginé power and prestige to a new level. After the battle, several Haje chieftains gave their lands to the Lugine, as penance for their cowardice. Their land would soon be absorbed into the High Kingdom of the Luginé, as they entered a golden age. Trade increased with Singidu, and a new city was built in the mountains to protect the passes against the Jiru. The Cult of the Spring spread throughout the area, and Luginé culture was famed as far away as the Applegarden.
---
The city of Etaea was a smoking ruin. The port of Naxa was abandoned. The city of Balos was so completely destroyed that no trace of it still existed on the earth. But after ten brutal years of warfare with the Sea Peoples, they had been pushed back to Isus, their original base. The Teacher sighed. There would never be peace with these strange invaders, but at least they could be contained. Their strange machines that threw bolts of iron killed many horses, but gradually they managed to copy these weapons for their own use.
These Sea Peoples would die, if it took them a thousand years. But little did he know that the Draklor had only fought off one of the Sea Peoples armies.
---
Viktor wiped the blood off his blade, raising his hands to acknowledge the cheers of his subjects. In an arrangement between Vardis and the Haskfe, the leaders of both nations would meet in a duel. If the Haskfe won, they could settle on Vardis’ lands. If they lost, they would be forced to leave. And leave they did. Disheartened by the death of their warchief, the Haskfe moved northwest, down the river valley.
But that was not the last they would hear of them. It was later discovered that ‘Haskfe’ was a translation of ‘Stiert,’ and that the rulers of both clans were related. The Haskfe were absorbed into Stiert, settling in small camps to the south, on the banks of the Gedu River. From there they continued to raid their neighbors, carrying off cattle and looting villages. It is an incredible annoyance to both Vardis and Alystr, who have enough problems of their own.
Vardis has continued to grow and expand to the north, but the fertile grasslands and thick forests of the south are still off limits. It seems like wave after wave of fierce barbarians continues to attack the southern border. In recent years the nation has become very militarized, with cities building fortresses, and raising guards to serve in peacetime.
---
The ships of the Sea Peoples clogged the Dimini Delta. Habyte’s fleet, small but proud, fought off repeated assaults by the enemy…but then, ships bearing white, and not black sails joined the attack. The Tevanii had joined forces with the Sea Peoples. Faced with hundreds of enemy ships, the Habytean navy fled up the Dimini, pursued by Tevanii raiders.
The people of the Dimini Delta were some of the richest and most advanced on the entire continent. As the blue-clad soldiers stormed onto its undefended shores, they unleashed a wave of horror that would last for years, and the shockwaves of which would echo for centuries.
Well-fortified cities were besieged; the undefended ones were looted and utterly destroyed. Soon, the mighty city of Sinir, capital of the Habytean Empire itself, was under siege. The large Habytean armies rushed north in a screaming rage…but they couldn’t penetrate to the islands of the Delta without navy. And the Tevanii brought a new weapon, like a giant bow turned on its side, that shot bolts of iron. Combined with the fearsome numbers of the Sea Peoples, even the armies of Habyte could not save their homeland.
And so, after a siege that spanned two years, Sinir, the home of the Temple of Laws, and half a million souls, fell. The Beaknoses stripped the city dry, massacred its inhabitants, and set the city ablaze. It burned for seven days.
Harungen noticed the complete vacuum of power, and marshaled what was left of their armies. Cessal was shattered, and Tailan brushed aside, before it was quietly annexed to the rage of the Council. Most of the southern Habytean cities had suffered from the war, and were suffering more from the constant raids. They reluctantly agreed to join Harungen's empire, seeing no other choice.
Only a few Habytean city-states remain independent of the Sea Peoples and Harungen, but they are a pathetic shadow of the mighty Legaltheistic Empire that once ruled. Now the Autarch has the empire he has always wanted, but it is a somewhat hollow victory. Despite Harungen’s unquestioned power, over half of its subjects are Mainyu, Tailani, Habytean, Darian or Cessalite. And the Draklor are riding across the plains…
---
Despite the chaos that had been sweeping the area, Alezar had prospered. After the Sea Peoples swept down and cut off their trade route with Habyte, they turned to the east instead. Expanding into the mountains, they found deposits of silver, gold, and some precious gems, in addition to the tin and copper they used to make bronze.
Eventually, Ebeor lacked the money to pay for Alezar’s goods. So instead, they vassalized them. The King of Alezar, Jasonius III, (
) has become one of the wealthiest monarchs in the region, and his cities have swelled with Habytean scholars fleeing the disasters in their homeland. Legaltheism has begun to take root in Alezar, though not to the degree it did in Habyte. But Jasonius has been quick to fortify his coasts and borders, in case the Sea Peoples try and extend their conquests to his prosperous nation.
Alezari settlers eventually crossed the northern mountains. There was a fertile, slightly rugged coast there. But they already found a few villages, belonging to a fierce people from across the sea. The Tevanii had begun to colonize the mainland, and it remains to be seen whether they will be friends or enemies with Alezar. Only time will tell.
---
Deep in the southern marshes, the People were building.
The Drake ordered a new system of canals, in the capital and the major coastal cities. This had the effect of encouraging water transport, which bound the coastal cities of the People closer together. However, the inland territories began to feel neglected, many of who already followed the Harungen Pantheon. When they rebelled, the Drake’s army took the field, and fought what was known as the Short War. As soon as they caught sight of Harungen’s armies, they were happy to give the province over to the Autarch as a ‘gift.’ Right.
But despite that, a rebellion against the Darians gave the People an opportunity to strike. The Dragon Path followers of southern Daria rose up when their king publicly converted to the Death Cult, a very unpopular religion in that region. Marshaling their vast navy of river galleys and war canoes, the People streamed out of their marshes. The small Darian navy was burned, and the People triumphantly joined with their Dragon Path brethren. But the northern portions of what was Daria broke off, preferring to join Harungen (who the People were terrified of) instead.
Despite the rivalries growing with their gigantic northern neighbor, the People are continuing to exist, as they always have, building an empire in their marshes. Though many have begun to complain about the unhealthiness of the cities, perhaps the Drake could call upon the gods for a solution?
---
The land between Draklor and the Dimini river valley had long been peacefully inhabited by groups of semi-nomadic tribes. But the plains got a lot more crowded recently, as waves of refugees and migrants began fleeing from the cataclysm of the day. Whether it was plains tribes fleeing the Draklor, Habyteans fleeing the Sea Peoples, or simply confused travelers, all of them eventually collided in the central plains. Cities and villages began to appear, and vastly different cultures fused and merged.
Only one place did a government emerge. That place was called Kthul. The land was a patchwork of swamps and forests, and had a strange mixture of cultures. The people were bound together by a mysterious man named the King in Yellow. This enigmatic figure is the absolute head of a terrifying sacrificial religion, Tsaggoth, influenced by the Death Cult and Thenital, where slaves are killed to appease the gods, hallucinogenic fungi are consumed to induce visions, and those who fail to worship are killed…or worse, sacrificed.
This blood chilling land is the product of the death and despair that has surrounded the area. One can only hope that they do not gain greater power, or they could be a force worse than even the Sea Peoples on an already troubled land…
---
The people of Exilia had trudged through the Great Desert for countless months. On one side was the endless, unforgiving expanse of desert. On the other, there was only the unending ocean that circled the world. But still they marched on, knowing that a harsh journey was better than death on the spears of the Keji.
The Veritor began to regret his folly. He had led his people into the desert for nothing. Their supplies and water were low, and the soldiers were beginning to grumble. Perhaps there was nothing else, and a giant desert simply surrounded the world.
He was contemplating ordering his people back to face the Jiru, when a cry came out from the front of the column. There was something rising out of the haze. There were two mountains, taller than anything the Veritor had ever seen. They shot up out of the desert, like a giant deep underground had tried to punch through the crust of the earth. But best of all, they were green.
Between the mountains was a small stream, which created a habitable area in the middle of the desert. The Veritor saw that it wasn’t enough to sustain his people forever, but it would give them enough food and water to continue their journey. They were saved. Thanking the gods above, and willing to believe in them this once, he bellowed out orders to make camp.
---
It was the last winter of the Yuzoi. The mountains stretched on, cold and heartless. They offered no protection from the elements. Soon they were above the treeline, scrambling across tableland and waving grasses that seemed to shiver in the snow. They dislodged delicate alpine mosses as they scrabbled across the rocks, and sent piles of gravel whirling down, tiny landslides that vanished into the air.
There was only enough food for a few more days. They had all lost track of time. But these mountains seemed to be endless. Even the best of the Syr trackers knew that they had gone farther than any other man they knew of. They had gone farther than the legends.
Just as the young Yuzarch was ready to lay down and die, the first member of their party, a grizzled veteran fighter of the Syr, stopped in his tracks. He stared, and he stared, and the tears ran down his cheeks into his beard. They had made it through the mountains. The Yuzoi had left their old world behind, and found a new world against all odds. Below them, a rich green valley spread across the landscape. They were home.
---
On the same day, at the same moment, the people of Exilia and Yuzoi looked west. One nation saw only blasted desert behind them, devoid of life, a remembrance of the suffering they had endured, and the difficult journey they would still have to face. The other saw hope, an end to their constant fear of death, and a rich future awaiting them in unknown lands.
Both nations looked into their past, and saw their future, as the blood red sun plunged below the horizon.
